I've dumped on Falcon.....

[bounce]

I have dumped on his ideas the most, but I know he's voicing what many others are thinking.

The ideas he has expressed are VERY COMMON among the populace and I have gone OUT OF MY WAY to counter virtually EVERY assertion he has made on the subject of money TO SHOW EVERYONE just how false the average person's ideas are.

You should go through every post in this forum and read the point - counter point discussions.

They're meaningful.

Yes, I have dumped on him, but it's really HIS IDEAS that I am attempting to show are demonstrably false.

In the end, even after clearly showing that his ideas will get him into trouble, his basic response is, "I don't care."

That is a VERY COMMON response.

Most people are comfortable with their false "imaginings" of the way money is and how it works. They don't want their ideas kicked aside with a boot even if they are demonstrably false.

This is what I meant in one of my very first posts on this topic: The biggest problems people have financially have nothing to do with money. They have everything to do with peoples' unwillingness to change the BAD IDEAS they have about money (even after they KNOW they're bad). It isn't what people DON'T KNOW that hurts them so much as all the shit they know for sure that SIMPLY ISN'T TRUE.

Falcon has said that it takes too much effort to think smart things about money. He has said that he doesn't care if he's middle class forever. He has said that he doesn't want to seek financial independence because it could give him a heart attack. He has said that smart finances are cut-throat. He said that he doesn't want to do nothing his whole life. He said that Kramer said....

Jesus Christ! Enough of the BULLSHIT already!!!!

I'm ready to fucking vomit at all the BS he's said because absolutely NONE OF IT IS TRUE.

Even when faced with clear an incontrovertible facts to the contrary, the average person will choose to remain in their comfort zone like an ostrich with its head in the sand HOPING that everything will turn out OK. They will give one bogus rationalization after another, one excuse after another, as to why they shouldn't think differently than they do.

Accepting my ideas hook, line and sinker and then ACTING ON THEM can help save your financial future.

Acting on Falcon's ideas will doom you to financial mediocrity.

There is no middle ground. If you choose not to change, you will be caught up in the coming financial tsunami. (I explained this in a different post). This is about MORE than financial independence. It's about your future.

Your future is yours. Your future is formed by what you choose to think today.

The choice is yours. Choose to think different!

Again, I am shitting on Falcon here, but condescending HIM is not my intent. I think his ideas about money SUCK, they're UNTRUE and I want to show beyond a shadow of a doubt WHY they aren't true and remind you that YOU DO NOT HAVE TO THINK CRAP LIKE THAT! I know many of you think just like he does.

You can choose to think that way, but you don't HAVE TO.

Now that you know there is another way to think there is no turning back. The choice of what you think is squarely on your shoulders. You cannot say, "I didn't know there was another way to think about money."

The responsibility of which ideas you choose to accept is YOURS.

To Falcon: you are actually helping me here (giving me an example of what the average person thinks) and I was waiting for someone to stand up and challenge my ideas. You are just the one who happened to do it first.

[bounce]

I title this "A failure of vision" because many people cannot do the math when it comes to their own futures. They cannot see what's right in front of their faces.

Many people, like Falcon, see their future through the image of TODAY and cannot fathom what unbelievable changes await them.

So, for everyone else's benefit, I am going to try to explain why Falcon is having a failure of vision.

Hopefully everyone will be able to see some of this in their own lives.

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Falcon says that he is "fine" with being middle class and as long as he goes to work and contributes to his 401K he can rest "comfortably" in the knowledge he will be OK.

It's too much trouble to work toward financial independence and it isn't practical for him to do so.

OK, that much is on the table.

Let me explain how that attitude will ass-rape him, financially.

He goes on pretty much as he is - thinking his thoughts - things seem to make sense to him. He spends most of what he makes although he contributes to his 401K and he manages to save a little.

As time goes on, being the good officer that he is, he puts in his 60-hour work weeks (many will be significantly MORE than that) and he gets promoted.

When he makes captain he does what most captains do with their raise and he buys a new car, a bigger house and lots of other neat shit like a boat and a new home stereo system with HDTV.

He now (at the end of each pay day) actually has LESS money left over than he had as a Second LT, but he looks good in his new surroundings so all is well. He sure "looks" financially successful to his troops and that's a biggie to him. He heard Andre Agassi say "Image is EVERYTHING" and Andre obviously knows best or he wouldn't be allowed to say it on TV. Besides, as he looks at his mounting bills, he's sure he'll make Major and he can pay all this stuff off with the big raise he'll get.

Time goes on, he marries the enlisted girl he's been boning (OK, cheap shot - I couldn't resist) and has a couple of kids.

The kids come with ENORMOUS expenses. Now he has to buy shit he's never DREAMED OF. The expenses mount and suddenly he HAS to make Major! The financial pressure begins to mount. HE HAS TO MAKE THAT DP list!

However, not to worry, he makes Major and then Lt Col below the zone. He's on the fast track. All is well, but his new 0-5 salary is nowhere near as much as he thought it would be when he was a 2nd Lt.

He's like the guy "Stanley" on that commercial. The guy who has all the neat shit (big house, new car, membership at the golf club, etc) and then he finally admits that he can BARELY make his finance charges (His final line is, "Somebody, please help me").

It's all a poor Lt.Col can do to make all these fucking payments.

Now, he's approaching 20 years time in service and it's getting closer to retirement. He can see it on the horizon.

The only problem now is that he's used to making $100K/yr. Getting by on retirement pay is unthinkable.

He has two or three kids either IN or about to enter college. Two of his kids are girls and they both want big-weddings. "PLEASE DADDY, It's the one special day in a girl's life. So what if it's $30K!"

$30K each! EACH!

Where will he find that?

He couldn't save $10K in a year if he tried! He's maxed out as it is!

He cannot afford to retire! If he doesn't make 0-6, he's really going to be fucked! God forbid what would happen to him financially if he gets divorced!

He has a Master's degree and he's been to the War College, but he's unrated - that can't help. (all the specifics are not important - who knows what he will have achieved by then. This isn't the point)

The point is that his hope of living "comfortably" in the middle class is a joke. It's laughably absurd. He has kids that want to go to the Ivy League. He has a wife that's used to being addressed as Mrs. Colonel Falcon. She's not about to want to downsize and get a job bagging groceries at this point. His house is NOWHERE NEAR being paid off. He's looking at a mandatory retirement and life at 2nd Lt's pay.

He cannot afford it!

What will he do?

If he's like every other swinging dick I've seen in that situation, he'll get out and start interviewing his fucking ass off looking for another job! If he can't find one, he's fucked, his wife is fucked and his kids are headed to the community college.

He spends his days trying to figure out how he will tell his kids that he just cannot provide all the shit they want. He will tell them that he had to fend for HIMSELF, now it's THEIR TURN.

It's right about at this stage when the talk of "divorce" creeps into the conversations with his wife.

This whole scenario is going to be created because of the "What, me worry?" attitude he has right now.

Now, he still has his 401K to depend on, right?

LOL

This scenario doesn't even touch the ass raping that's coming to him (and everyone else who believes the lies they're being told) on that front.

Now, I have said this, and said this, and said this - AND I HAVE JUST BEGUN TO SAY IT - 99% of what you think about money is wrong!

Everything Falcon has uttered on the subject (which is stuff that most people believe) is bullshit.

You need to expand your vision beyond today if you hope to avoid the pain that awaits you in the future. You cannot listen to people who call themselves "experts" when they get up and go to work every single GD day. They do NOT have the answers that will lead to a stress-free retirement. They won't even be able to retire - period!

So, as Falcon sits there saying that seeking financial independence is just too much trouble and that he knows that if he just does his job and contributes to his 401K everything will be OK, the storm clouds are forming. He's just blind to them.

Now, I ask you.... are you going to listen to HIM, or are you going to listen to me?

I have seen airline pilots who make $300K per year fall into this very same trap.

The amount of money you work for isn't a factor. The issue is that they never learned to put money to work FOR THEM.

[bounce]

Although I made an example of Falcon in this post, the SAME EXACT process will happen to virtually everyone with his attitude.

As you read my prognostication for his financial future, you can substitute YOUR CAREER for the USAF and put yourself in those exact shoes.

When I ask, "are you going to listen to HIM, or are you going to listen to ME" I don't mean "literally" listen to him.

What I mean is "Are you going to listen to THOSE SAME IDEAS that you have rummaging around in your own mind?"

He speaks ideas that most people have. They are commonly held ideas and the future I predicted for HIM will be at least 85% true for EVERYONE reading this.

The number of kids may vary, but the career and the work promotions and the pressure for more money are ALL THERE.

The difference will be that he will be virtually guaranteed a 20 year career (he could get RIF'd, but he'll probably get 20 years).

The average "career minded" person in their 20s today probably won't work more than 5 years for any one employer.

So, your future will be even MORE volatile than his will be. The pressure to produce will be EVEN GREATER on you than on him.

People are free to maintain the "What, me worry?" attitude all they want. However, that attitude will screw anyone who has it.

[FightingFalcon]

1) When did I ever say that I would retire from the Air Force and not get another job? In fact, I'm pretty sure I've said numerous times that I'm getting both my Masters and PhD from the Air Force and will move on to a professorship after my time in the AF.

2) Not everyone is as obsessed with money as you are, Bounce. I am not going to let the by-product of my life's joy define who I am as a human being. If I was really concerned about money, do you REALLY think I would pick the military as a career? Wake up and try to understand what I've been saying Bounce. You keep yelling at someone who just doesn't care about fabulous wealth. So keep dumping all you want.

[bounce]

fightingfalcon said:

1) When did I ever say that I would retire from the Air Force and not get another job? In fact, I'm pretty sure I've said numerous times that I'm getting both my Masters and PhD from the Air Force and will move on to a professorship after my time in the AF.

You never did.

I am telling everyone THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO OR YOU'RE FUCKED. Not only will YOU be fucked, but your family will be fucked. You are fine with that arrangement.

If it doesn't work out, then they can just be fucked.

Hopefully you won't be disabled in a motorcycle accident and be UNABLE TO WORK YOUR ASS OFF.

Part of your mentality is the "ASSUMPTION" that you will BE ABLE to continue to trade the best years of your life, busting your ass, for a few after tax dollars.

You will pass your knowledge down to your kids and there will be another generation of worker bee Falcons depending on being able to serve breakfast to kids like mine.

That works for me dude.

I am speaking to people who have bigger ambitions for themselves and their kids than you do.

2) Not everyone is as obsessed with money as you are, Bounce. I am not going to let the by-product of my life's joy define who I am as a human being. If I was really concerned about money, do you REALLY think I would pick the military as a career? Wake up and try to understand what I've been saying Bounce. You keep yelling at someone who just doesn't care about fabulous wealth. So keep dumping all you want.

I am making an example of you because while you SAY you aren't obsessed with money, IT OWNS YOU. Money will always COMMAND YOU.

You casually ignore the idea that YOU work for IT. You are ITS SLAVE, it isn't yours.

I am talking to people who want to have a financial ADVANTAGE over life and be FREE of the commands money, and their "boss," give them.

I want to talk to people who want their KIDS to have an ADVANTAGE in life.

What you are saying is that it's OK to go through life at a DISADVANTAGE and continue busting your ass FOR MONEY.

You are doing your best to explain to us that it's OK to do that.

My kids will learn to command money and your kids will follow your lead and learn to have money command them.

It looks to me to be an awful lot like fucking SLAVERY, but you seem to be willing to don the chains of ignorance. You've already learned the working CHANTS.

We need a generation of good little employees out there busting their asses to see to our needs. While your kids are competing for work with the illegals, my kids will be deciding who to hire.

Your kids may get the job, but then again, maybe not.

I want to talk to people who want to VOMIT at the thought of that!

Your ideas SUCK!

They are unenlightened and thoroughly "working middle class."

I am not here to drag people into prosperity and financial independence.

All I can do is point the way for people who are interested in putting one foot in front of the other and making the trek themselves.

I understand that when I speak of your "kids" I am speaking a couple of levels above your awareness and comprehension (since you have none - none that we're publicly aware of anyway).

Some people reading this will understand.

As I said, I am not only speaking to "Falcon." I am speaking to the voices in EVERYONE'S HEAD that speak like you do.

Those ideas need to be soundly obliterated. Beating those ideas back is the first step.